BCCI may have felt the start of worldwide rebellion

A Bangladesh fan hacked the BCCI website in rebellion of the new ICC proposal.

The Small Seven might not have protested against the preposterous designs hatched by the BCCI, ECB and CA troika, but their fans are at work already. Abhishek Mukherjee looks at a spark that may ignite one of the most revolutionary fires in world cricket.

The Small Seven boards might still be hesitant, but the fans are already at work: Bangladesh, the infant in the Test community, has ignited the first spark of rebellion. There have already been demonstrations with banners that said “Cricket is business to you but oxygen to us”, “This is game, not business”, or “Tin Moroler Shob Onyajyo Dabi ‘Na’ Bolo, Bangladesher Cricket Rokkha Koro” (“Say ‘no’ to what the Big Three say: save Bangladesh Cricket) on the streets of the country that is no less passionate about the sport than any other.

The protest, however, meant little to the behemoths of global cricket, so this time, however, the fans decided to take things a step further — something that would be noticed by the world. They hacked the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) website; a person who calls himself Ashik Iqbal has managed to make his way through the many layers of the security of the site.

Ashik Iqbal had managed to cover every bit of the website with his name, sparing not a single link. And if someone did click a link it led to a photograph of a victorious Bangladesh cricket team with their flag, with credits given to several people who go by names like BD XTOR, Rotating Rotor, Ablaze Ever, and Murkho Manob (a foolish person) and the BD Grey Hat Hackers team.

The BCCI website, at the time this article was published, had been down for maintenance since then and was yet to be restored to normalcy. They may get it up shortly, but as of now it has a look not very dissimilar to the steps they have taken towards the development of cricket, Indian or global.

The site would definitely be restored shortly, but it probably proves how the power of the fan should never be ignored; it is the fans on whom the sport thrives, and it is of them that BCCI (and the other two representatives of the Big Three — Cricket Australia and the England and Wales Cricket Board) has been making money. They should have seen this coming: the wrath of the fans can hit them harder than they had ever imagined.

The fans had never opposed to the idea of the boards making money out of the sport at their expense; however, they are taking things rather seriously when it has come down to the boards making money at the expense of the sport itself. A vast proportion of them love their cricket way more than it had met the eye.

The Bangla fans may have triggered a rebellion against the Big Three; the other members will follow suit soon; and there are enough genuine fans of the sport in India, Australia, and England as well who may not be far behind as well.